Sixteen months ago . . .
Chapter One
"I hunt demons, not aliens," Evalle Kincaid grumbled under her breath. She parked her GSX-R motorcycle in the heavy shadow of an abandoned gas station in . . . she had no idea what this rural area was called, only that it was an hour east of Atlanta. March apparently intended to go out like a lamb with a cool breeze in the mid-sixties. Stowing her riding gear that left her in a black T-shirt and jeans, she headed over to where four men waited inside the gutted building.
VIPER team, mostly Beladors.
Not a Men-in-Black agent among them.
So why send a VIPER team to investigate this particular crime? As a coalition that protected humans from supernatural predators, VIPER handled a lot of strange things, but cow killings?
That was so . . . Roswell.
She took every mission seriously, but seeing two
particular men on this mission ramped up the significance: Tzader Burke, who was Maistir over all the North American Beladors, and, Vladimir Quinn, who oversaw the Belador investments.
They were two of the most dangerous men she'd ever met, and her closest friends. Much as she'd like to joke about looking for little green men, she was mentally prepared for something preternatural and deadly.
That actually raised her comfort level.
Also wearing black jeans, plus a matching longsleeved Under-Armour shirt over a ripped body that was such a deep brown he was nearly invisible in the dark, Tzader paused in talking to the other three as Evalle walked up.
She was only a few minutes late and the traffic jam hadn't been her fault, but she felt it necessary to explain. "I would have been here sooner, but--"
Reece "Casper" Jordan piped up. "We know, sunshine. You're a fragile Alterant, too delicate to travel before sunset."
Of the agents here tonight, Casper was the only non-Belador. The mouthy Texan had shared his body with the spirit of a thirteenth-century highland warrior ever since he'd been struck by lightning while in Scotland ten years ago. She'd heard stories about how he'd changed into a highland warrior during battle a few times, and at times the shift was accompanied by electrical or lightning flashes. Sweet.
"Got your delicate in my boot, cowboy." Evalle sent Casper a wry smile since he meant no malice. Yes, she was relegated to working only at night if she didn't want to wear heavy protective gear due to her deadly reaction to the sun, the same reason her eyes were so sensitive to light. But as an Alterant--part Belador and part unknown--she had a few extra tricks even the other Beladors didn't possess, such as natural night vision. She could see everyone here just fine in the tarpit darkness.
In fact, the barely-there moonlight seemed bright to her.
Having traded his signature Stetson for combat headgear, Casper had a night-vision monocular that gave him a cyborg-ish look. He wore a tactical moly vest with shell holders and had a wicked-nice customized double-barrel Stoeger shotgun hanging from a shoulder sling.
The three Beladors present--Tzader, Quinn and Trey McCree--didn't need monoculars. They'd utilize her exceptional vision once they all linked powers, turning them into a dangerous fighting unit. Of course, that ability came with a downside.
If one of them was killed while linked, they all died.
"Everyone just got here right before you, Evalle," Tzader said, then moved straight into the mission. "Listen up, team. We don't know what exactly we'll encounter tonight, but our people in local law enforcement will keep humans away while we stake out the kill zone."
"Are they sure these cow attacks aren't some creepy high school or college prank?" Evalle asked. She couldn't be the only one thinking that.
Tzader nodded at Quinn who took over, speaking in his cultured British accent. "I've reviewed everything law enforcement has on the investigation and met with the farmer whose livestock was mutilated. He has an electric fence with a sophisticated security monitoring system around the pasture where the cows were killed."
"Damn, son," Casper crowed. "What kind of cows that boy got?"
Quinn merely quirked an eyebrow at Casper's use of "son." He was normally dressed in a custom suit--one that would cost more than Casper's new Dodge Ram truck parked nearby--for a corporate business meeting, or in one of his many tuxedos, to attend the social event of the season.
But underestimating Quinn as nothing more than a party boy would be akin to keeping a pet pit viper.
One mistake and you're dead.
Tonight he'd donned a dark turtleneck and sleek pants, both probably made of some hi-tech material being tested for military use.
Quinn continued, "These are quite valuable animals. They are a genetically superior line of cattle the owner has spent a small fortune raising as breeding stock for new herds. He's lost two cows in the last thirty hours, and now he's moved his herd indoors until someone figures out what is killing them. Our Belador contacts in law enforcement and animal control talked him into allowing them to substitute another group of cows as bait for tonight."
Casper scrunched up one side of his face with a frown. "Usually takes more than losing a few head of cattle to get any serious agency attention."
"True," Quinn acknowledged. "This became high profile--and drew VIPER's attention--because of the way the cows were killed and the evidence left around the attacks."
Evalle sorted through what they knew so far and played devil's advocate. "So what if this thing we're hunting can tell the difference between that farmer's prize stock and a plain old cow? What's going to make this bait work?"
Tzader answered, "We're hoping whatever is killing the cows will come back again out of habit, and it attacked only pregnant cows. We have a lot of those in this herd. Our plan is to catch this thing before it figures out the switch."
She understood cows were grown for food, but anything that harmed an expectant mother was evil and needed to die in misery. "I say the minute something with teeth shows up, we kill it."
"There's the woman I want covering my six." Casper chuckled.
The sigh that escaped Tzader said he wished she was joking, but he'd given her the dagger she carried--that had a death spell on the blade--as a gift, and knew she didn't use it to peel potatoes. "We need to capture this thing, Evalle, to figure out what it is and where it came from. There were only a couple footprints with deep claw marks found around all the cows that were attacked."
"Footprints as in feet, not paws or hooves?" Trey asked in a grumpy please-tell-me-you're-kidding voice. Short brown hair stood up in all directions on his head, especially when he raked his fingers back and forth through it like he was doing now. Some men might claim that as a hairstyle, but with Trey it was pure bed-head. When you were built like a linebacker and supercharged with unusual powers, you could wear your hair any way you wanted.
Evalle grinned at Trey and teased, "Yeah, we're after Bigfoot now. This just gets better all the time."
"He's right," Tzader cut in.
"What?" she sputtered. "Like human feet with claws?"
Tzader nodded his bald head. "The feet and toes are human in shape. From the depth of the footprint and span of where the feet seemed to hit the ground in a stepping pattern we've estimated its size at over nine feet and weight somewhere around five-hundred pounds give or take some. The claws curving off the toes are three inches long and appear razor sharp."
"That'd gut a buffalo," Casper reasoned. "I'm guessing this thing is coming in from the sky with so few prints to go on."
"That's what we figure, too," Tzader confirmed. "The bite marks on the bodies where the flesh was torn open were ten inches wide and indicate a double row of teeth that could rip through muscle and snap bones."
Lovely. Evalle muttered, "Carnivorous Bigfoot with wings. And you want us to catch that before it eats some
thing else?"
She had no doubt that Tzader had heard her with his exceptional hearing, but he kept talking as if he hadn't. "Here's the plan."
Tzader explained the layout of the pasture, which backed up to the woods behind the abandoned gas station, then added, "The new herd was fed a few hours ago, and recon says they're bedded down near the end of the pasture where we'll exit the woods. That's where we should find them. Since no humans are involved, everyone is authorized to use their powers tonight, but we need this thing alive . . . unless the decision comes down to your life or a team member's."
Evalle would follow Tzader into any battle without question, but she didn't get why they had to capture this thing. They destroyed demons and other dangerous dark creatures all the time, the point being to rid the world of supernatural predators.
Before she could ask, power surged into Evalle's mind when Tzader addressed all the Beladors telepathically. It's time to link with Evalle so we'll all have night vision.
No reply was needed. Belador warriors followed the orders of a Maistir without question.
Evalle lowered her mental shields and energy surged into her, feeling like a blast of adrenaline from all the powers linked, but it settled down just as quickly. She looked over at Casper. "We're linked and using my vision."
He nodded, moving his fingers up to his monocular.
Trailing behind Tzader, Evalle entered the woods, having forgotten how noisy crickets and frogs could be outside the city. She kept her thoughts to herself while she climbed over a rusty wire fence and pushed her way through thick underbrush, rattling branches in the wake of Tzader's quieter moves.
Something squawked and flapped, diving from somewhere above her.
Evalle swung her hands up, prepared to use her kinetic power against an attack, but Tzader shouted in her head, Don't! Just a couple turkeys.
Close behind her, Casper muttered, "Never taking you hunting, that's for sure."
She released a stream of air that came out as a hiss of frustration and put her hands down. Back when she'd first been brought into the Beladors, she'd had survival training in a frigid climate. Her experience in southern rural settings had been minimal.
Catching up to Tzader, she asked him privately mind-to-mind, Hey, Z, what does VIPER expect to learn from taking this thing in alive?
He had to turn sideways and lift his arms to squeeze through an opening in a patch of blackberry bushes that snagged Evalle's jeans when she passed through behind him.
Just another reason to stay out of the boondocks.
Put her in the middle of any metropolitan landscape and she was pure stealth, but right now she was making more noise than Quinn, Trey and Casper together.
Trey and Casper she could understand since they both had grown up in the country, but Quinn surprised her. She hadn't expected him to be so fluid and silent out here.
Tzader finally answered her. One of the people I know up the food chain in the government has reason to believe that someone has been doing secret testing on strange animals in a private facility. This attack fits their intel. They need to know if this creature is a result of someone's experiments and where it came from.
You mean they think someone created this thing we're after in a lab?
Maybe.
Considering that implication, something more significant struck her. She'd always been told never to expose her powers to a human. But I thought the humans and the government aren't supposed to know we exist.
You know we have Beladors in national security positions . . . this is coming down from those offices. The concern in his voice said there was more at stake than a few cows.
What do you mean, Z? They think this thing could cause a national disaster or something?
Worse than that. One reason VIPER was formed was out of concern over preternatural creatures being used in terrorist operations. Our people in Washington need a definitive answer that someone is or is not developing creatures like the one we're hunting, and if so, why? Plus, they need to know quickly, because the president is making a campaign stop here this week. That's why we can't just kill this thing and risk another one popping up unexpectedly.
She wanted to ask more questions but they'd reached a fence that looked like the normal white-board, threeslat fencing in rural areas until she stepped up close. A laser beam ran between support posts. On the inside of the fence, wires had been stretched through twoinch metal support tabs and power hummed from the wires. A warning had been stamped on the outside of each wood section that read: NO TRESPASSING: ELECTRIC CHARGE - DANGEROUS.
Tzader's orders to the team filled her head. Trey, give Casper a hand so he can make it over the fence, then we'll follow him on our own.
She turned around as Tzader gave Casper hand signals.
Casper had the ability to shift into a shadow that could attach to a surface or move like vapor, but sending him over the fence in his human form was more efficient right now.
Standing with his back to the fence, Trey wove his fingers together to make a step support for launching Casper. Leaning forward, he bent one knee to support his arms.
Casper nodded at him then took several long strides and stepped into Trey's big hands. With the boost of Trey's kinetics, Casper flew up and over the fence in an arc fifteen feet off the ground, flipping in the air and landing on his feet.
Grinning, of course.
Evalle and the other Beladors used their kinetic powers to take a high leap over the fence on their own, landing well inside a shorter electric "hot" wire fence meant to keep the cattle away from the higher-voltage rails. As she sailed across the barriers, the evening breeze was flush with the odor of cow manure and grass. Once inside the pasture, Tzader directed the team to move across the field to where a small herd of cows had bedded down for the night beneath the half moon. The cows chewed their cud and made soft mooing noises as the team approached.
Evalle had never had a pet and knew zero about farm animals, but as she got closer she saw a field of bellies obviously swollen with baby calves.
All the cows were pregnant?
She could not sit here and watch those animals get attacked, but before she voiced her concern, Tzader gave a hand motion and communicated silently to the Beladors. Surround the pregnant cows. Stay at least seventy-five feet back.
As they created a perimeter, Evalle said to Tzader, We could use a tracker who can follow something preternatural. This would be a good time to have that tracker you keep telling Sen we need.
Sen acted as a liaison between VIPER agents and the ruling Tribunal body . . . when he wasn't acting like an A-hole. But he saved the majority of his obnoxious personality traits to use on Evalle.
He considered Alterants a genetic blight on the rest of the world.
Sen could take his opinion and shove it where he kept his head most days.
Tzader cut off her wandering thoughts when he said, Sen claims he's found a potential tracker who's coming in soon. A Navajo shaman.
Evalle said, I'll believe it when I see it.
Don't know that it would matter in this case unless the shaman could follow something with wings.
Tzader had a point.
Evalle found a place to flatten close to the ground where she wouldn't end up with her face in fresh cow poop. She was just getting settled when she caught a movement in the woods a hundred yards away on the opposite side of the cow she was nearest.
The way the men were positioned like hour marks in an oblong circle around the herd, she was the only one who might have noticed the movement.
She slowed her breathing to listen, but everything was quiet. Silent, in fact.
No chirping or croaking.
Should she say something to the others? No way. Not until she determined what she'd seen was more than just a turkey.
Bending her arms at the elbows, she slid them close to her body and pushed back on her knees, staying low, but prepared to move the minute anything tried to attack one of the cows.
She scanned the tree line filled with pine trees and old hardwoods. Wouldn't something in search of a meal come out and maybe even circle one time to scope out his attack point?
If that was the case, the team should be able to intervene before--
All at once a huge black shape with wings burst from the top of a massive oak tree thirty yards beyond the men hunkered down between her and the tree.
Fifteen feet of wingspan flapped in a mad rush toward the cows.
It's coming! she yelled telepathically and shot up first, rushing to reach the cow closest to her in time to shield it.
Based on the angle the creature was heading down at a fast clip, it was going to overshoot most of the others and land near the edge of the herd.
On the cow closest to Evalle.
Just peachy. How lucky was she?
When moonlight brushed across the creature's body, she could make out human arms and legs with fingers and toes sporting claws Satan would envy. Mangy-looking skin covered its body, a thin sheath over bone and muscle.
Everything happened in a matter of seconds.
The men had gone into motion at the same time as her, but none were going to reach the cow that creature wanted before Evalle.
Claws extended and curved into attack mode as the creature's wings folded to land on top of its prey.
Evalle realized she wasn't going to make it in time to cover the cow with a protective kinetic field of energy either. She took two long strides and lunged into the air at the creature. Just before they collided, she tossed a kinetic blast forward, hoping to knock the beast away.
Which sort of worked.
The creature was blown sideways, hitting the ground face down and sliding away from the cow that started mooing and kicking, scrambling to get up.
Evalle's momentum took her over the cow and down in an angle that had her going straight for the creature. At least the blast of energy seemed to have stunned it . . . until Evalle landed on its back.
The thing heaved up off the ground, screeching and crying out, sounding almost like a human that had been hurt.
She reached around its neck with both arms to get a chokehold and gagged on the nasty odor she inhaled. The mottled skin smelled as if it was decaying, plus this thing had plowed through fresh cow patties.
When she felt the body lift up and the wings unfold, Evalle kicked her legs out to each side to stop it from flapping.